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3RW shares new illustrations, drawings and diagrams of our village for elderly with cognitive impairment in Olsrød, realized in collaboration with Nord Architects from Copenhagen. How do nursing homes differ in its architectural requirements from older building typologies such as the home or the hospital? What is a nursing home’s ideal size and layout? What relationship should a nursing home have to its immediate neighborhood; to the city? How do measures of comfort and safety translate into architectural decision making? What makes a good nursing home good? (Adams, 2016) These interrogations accompanied us during each step of the design process for the Olsrød Village.
Situated in a satellite area of Tønsberg, a large municipality of southern Norway, the project is designed as a colorful village with a homely atmosphere, creating a human-scald architecture that brings about a positive effect on its inhabitants’ well-being. For more than a century, nursing home architects and administrators have put extraordinary faith in the power of architecture to cure – in the capacity of buildings to serve as part of society’s ever-expanding toolkit to eradicate or alleviate disease. 3RW’s project fits this lineage: its buildings don’t characterize as an institution, but as a small, green society. Two Norwegian “tun”, or courtyard ensembles, are placed close to one another, creating an optimal balance between public, semi-public and private spaces. Images and additional text can be found here.
Our nursing home in Olsrød is the fourth joint design for a nursing home between 3RW and Nord. Precedent collaborations include our projects in Lyngdal, Randaberg and Furuset.